Getting to Know your International Contacts

I listened to Podcast radio with Irma Allen – Chairperson of the Swaziland Environment Authority (the equivalent to the EPA in the United States) and a member of World Forum Nature Action Collaborative for Children.  The podcast describes her work in African where she lives with her husband.  She has been challenged to teach community people to teach early childhood education.  Much of their work is done in the environment opposed to classrooms which they do not have.  The environment or nature is very strong part of the experience since they are teaching a respect for nature and Environment.  Ms. Allen describes a story of a young man who was an orphan that was one of the first participants of the early childhood experiences and how he stated that he remembers a woman smiling at him with open arms.  He states that learned to appreciate his country, home and environment, which gave him strength and encouragement.  He stated as he moved through life and experienced struggles and failures he would always draw on his early childhood experiences for encouragement.  Listening to this podcast reminded me of a school here in Decatur, Georgia called the Waldrof school.  Their curriculum is founded in nature and spend a great deal of time exploring the environment and nature.

I visited the site (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/), Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page and read about poverty in India.  India has 260.2 million people living in poverty as of 1999-2000.  Through systematic efforts to alleviate poverty they have increased economic growth, including liberalization of the economy, targeted programs, land and tenancy reforms and participatory empowerment based approaches and the provision of basic services.  I learned that governmental policy and programs are helping alleviate poverty in India.  Due to these approaches the poverty line declined from 54.9 percent to an estimated 26 percent.    In India there is a high rate of communicable diseases, malnutrition and maternal and perinatal illness.  So poverty has a negative effect on the health of people living in poverty.  India has a high percentage of working children.  There are inequalities in child wellbeing based on gender.  Girls life chances are less than boys, this is due to the fact of poverty as well as the Indian’s views that boys are permanent members of a family while girls are only temporary members.